20-20 Ringing Up All The Right Answers

A Glasgow start-up is aiming to revolutionise the fast-growing UK call centre sector with a new and innovative piece of software.

Hillington-based 20-20 Partnership’s Actionable Data package allows call centres for the first time to analyse customer and staff –performance data as soon as it happens.

The software, which was launched less than two months ago, has already been sold to a number of businesses, including US call centre giant Teletec, which has its UK base in Glasgow, and Omne Communications, based in Irvine, Ayrshire.

Formed just six months ago by two former employees of collapsed internet security specialist Buchanan International, 20-20 has already generated a turnover of £300,000, meeting its first-year annual target six months ahead of schedule.

Stephen McFadden, a 20-20 director and a former salesman with Buchanan, said; “When we came up with the idea, we talked to literally dozens of call centres and it was evident that there was a shortage of information available to managers and operators about how their business was functioning on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute basis.

“Too many companies go from month to month without having any idea about how efficiently their business is running. Often, when problems arise, it’s too late to do anything about it. Actionable Data lets call centre managers examine in real-time and analyse the trends in every aspect of the relationship between a call centre and its customers, allowing them to monitor their customer service and performance levels at a glance and to react swiftly to any efficiency, staff or product issues.

“This alters the way call centre managers and staff currently operate. Sales staff will be less quantity target driven and more focused on increasing customer loyalty. Manager will become more aware of customer trends and have the data at their fingertips to react swiftly.”

20-20’s market is the 6000 call centres already in operation in the UK, employing about 2% of the country’s population. Industry observers predict that figures will rise to 8000 by 2005.

The company, which was started with £100,000 of “personal investment” from the two directors and small loan from the Royal Bank Of Scotland, currently employs a staff of seven. McFadden said the company plans to employ a further 10 to 20 people by the end of 2002.

“We’re growing pretty fast, much faster than we anticipated” he said. “We may be looking to banks and venture capitalists for some extra finance to fund our growth.”

McFadden added the company hopes to hit turnover of between £750,000 and £1m by the end of the financial year in August.